"Thank you ! Did we all read "Giovanni's Room" when we were teens ... and were slightly baffled and taken ?? Now I'm curious .. about this movie" - Martin

"We don’t deserve something this beautiful in 2018..." - Margaret

"I thought it was a terrific, lovely film but with some flaws. I don't think the voiceovers work well in the film and nor was it necessary since the film was already so infused with Baldwin's voice. " - Raul

The Foreign Film category can often hold surprises. Germany may have an early lead but can it hold? Sweden's film is popular, and Denmark and Iran's films are about to open and could gain new heat. It might be a tight race.

WHO WAS LEFT OUT?

The finalists that didn't make the cut were Canada's "It's Only The End of the World," Russia's "Paradise," Norway's "The King's Choice" and Switzerland's "My Life as a Zucchini". But the finalists were an unexpected lot and many were surprised (including me) that France's "Elle" and Spain's "Julieta" were eliminated early.

THE SUBMISSION LIST - THERE WERE 85 OFFICIAL CONTENDERS THIS YEAR (THAT'S A RECORD)

OSCAR IS RESISTANT TO... Asian cinema. China, Japan, Hong Kong and India, for example, are prolific strong film industries but they are rarely nominated for Foreign Language Oscars though most of the Asian countries submit regularly. Taiwan has the best record among Asian film industries with 3 nominations and a win but every one of those is an Ang Lee picture (!!!). Japan was once popular with Oscar but that had more to do with Akira Kurosawa than with his country's cinema.

The countries that have received the most nominations without a win to date are

Israel (10 noms)

Mexico (8 nom)

Belgium (7 noms)

[TIE] Norway and Greece (with 5 each)

Never Nominated The countries that have submitted the most w/out receiving a single nomination are Portugal (33 times), Egypt and Romania (31), The Philippines and South Korea (28), Bulgaria (27), Venezuela (26), Croatia (25), Serbia, Turkey (23) and Thailand (22 times). Good luck to them all...and quickly!

ALGERIA - 5 noms / 1 winHonorable Mention goes to...YUGOSLAVIA - 6 noms Yugoslavia no longer exists but unlike the Former Soviet Union it's nearly impossible to attribute their nominees to any of the current countries since the separations which began in the early 90s were unusually painful / confusing / name-change / war laden - Current countries that were once part of Yugoslavia that now submit are: Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Slovenia, and Montenegro.